In the case of Katia Gutierrez de Martinez, Eduardo Martinez Puccini and Henny Martinez De Papiani v. Dirk A. Lamagno et al., 1994, the plaintiffs sued a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent for wrongful death after their relative was killed in an automobile accident involving the agent in Bogota, Colombia. The DEA agent claimed immunity under Westfall Act which protects federal employees from personal liability for tortious acts committed within the scope of their employment. The Attorney General certified that Lamagno had been acting within his official capacity at the time of incident; this certification would normally preclude any further legal action against him personally. The plaintiffs challenged this decision arguing that they should be allowed to present evidence proving otherwise and asked for judicial review on whether or not he was acting within his scope as a federal employee during said event. However, lower courts denied them such opportunity based on interpretation of Westfall Act's language stating it didn't provide room for judicial review. Upon reaching Supreme Court though, it ruled in favor of plaintiffs by 5-4 vote allowing them to seek judicial review despite Attorney General’s certification - interpreting that Congress did not explicitly preclude such reviews when drafting Westfall Act.

In the dissenting opinion for the case of Katia Gutierrez de Martinez, Eduardo Martinez Puccini and Henny Martinez de Papaiani v. Dirk A. Lamagno et al., Justice Scalia disagreed with the majority's interpretation of a statute that allows federal employees to be immune from lawsuits in certain situations when acting within their scope of employment. He argued that it is not up to courts but rather executive branch officials to determine whether an employee was acting within his or her official capacity during an incident leading to litigation. In this specific case, he believed that Lamagno should have been granted immunity as determined by his superiors at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), despite allegations against him causing a fatal car accident while intoxicated on duty in Bogota, Colombia.